Simon Pullman (15 February 1890 – August 1942) was a Polish

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist,

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

music teacher Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origina ...

and founder and director of the Pullman Ensemble and Orchestra, and a seminal figure in the evolution of

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

performance. Born in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, he was a nephew of the famous

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

actress Ester Rachel Kamińska and a cousin of Ida Kamińska and Josef Kamińsky. He studied with

Leopold Auer Leopold von Auer (; June 7, 1845July 15, 1930) was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor, composer, and instructor. Many of his students went on to become prominent concert performers and teachers. Early life and career Auer was born in ...

at the

Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a school of music in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty member ...

(1905–1909) where he received his diploma. In 1913, he continued his studies with Martin Pierre Marsick at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

. Back in Warsaw, he founded and led a chamber orchestra specialised on music of the Vienna Classic (1915 to 1920). In the 1920s and 1930s, he taught

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

, and chamber music at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium (New Vienna Conservatory), where he coached several groups including the Galimir String Quartet (led by

Felix Galimir Felix Galimir (May 20, 1910, Vienna – November 10, 1999, New York) was an Austrian-born American violinist and music teacher. Born in a Sephardic Jewish family Vienna; his first language was Ladino. Allan Kozinn,"Felix Galimir, 89, a Violin ...

). In 1930, he founded the Pullman Ensemble, consisting of 17 string players (4 string quartets with a double-bass), whose speciality was the performance of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

's Große Fuge, Op. 133, and String Quartet in C minor, Op. 131. Later, 10 wind players were added to form the Pullman Orchestra, which performed regularly in Vienna and throughout Europe until 1938, when Pullman was able to escape to Paris. According to his students and colleagues, Pullman was a visionary musician; his desire for a kind of revelatory ensemble playing led him to make use of the widest possible range of string tone, to demand a perfect

legato In music performance and notation, legato (; Italian for "tied together"; French ''lié''; German ''gebunden'') indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly, such that the transition from note to note is made with no intervening si ...

, and to search out highly unorthodox fingerings to match his conceptions of phrasing. Rehearsals were intense and long; however, they functioned as rolling all-day affairs where members came and went as their schedules permitted. Through his pupils

, Richard Goldner, and others, his ideas influenced the training of generations of chamber music performers in the U. S., Australia ( Musica Viva Australia), and elsewhere. In August 1939, he visited

in an attempt to sell a house belonging to his wife, and was trapped there by the German invasion. Imprisoned in the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

, he directed (guided by the orchestra founders Marian Neuteich and Adam Furmanski) the Warsaw Ghetto Symphony Orchestra, which included among notable musicians, Ludwik Holcman. The band performed frequently from 1940 to 1942. Pullman was transported to

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Mas ...

in early August 1942, and like him, all of the members of the orchestra were presumed to have been killed.

References

External links

"Simon Pullman"
''

Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit The ''Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit'' (LexM) is an online encyclopedia of the University of Hamburg, which has been developed as a work in progress since 2005. Publication/contents The editors today are Sophie Fetthau ...

'' (in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pullman, Simon 1890 births 1942 deaths Austrian classical musicians Polish classical musicians Polish civilians killed in World War II Jewish violinists Warsaw Ghetto inmates Polish people who died in Treblinka extermination camp Austrian people of Polish-Jewish descent Polish male classical violinists Polish male conductors (music) Musicians from Warsaw 20th-century Polish conductors (music) 20th-century Polish classical violinists 20th-century Polish male musicians Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni